This disclosure relates to wireless networking systems and techniques, namely remotely managing, configuring, visualizing, and interacting with wireless nodes. The techniques disclosed within this disclosure can be used in wireless networks that employ a bridge topology for Dynamic Multi Hop Relay (DMHR) in addition to other 802.11 wireless communication technologies mentioned herein.
Wireless communication, particularly wireless local area network (WLAN) technology, has become ubiquitous in the mobile computing environment. Some existing wireless networking standards, for example, Wi-Fi protocol IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 802.11 can be used to provide close-proximity wireless connectivity between wireless devices. As an example, Wi-Fi routers operating on the traditional 2.4 GHz band can reach up to 150 feet (46 m) indoors and 300 feet (92 m) outdoors. In some cases, 802.11a devices running at 5 GHz can reach approximately one-third of these distances.
Additionally, newer wireless networking technologies, such as 802.11ah, have been developed that are capable of operating at longer ranges and having comparatively lower device power consumption than some existing wireless systems. These long range, low power (LRLP) wireless technologies are usable to extend the communication range that is achieved with some legacy 802.11 wireless technologies, such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. For example, LRLP technology potentially improves wireless communication range strength by approximately 10 dbB and distance by approximately 500 m over some other existing wireless networking standards. There are some wireless networking environments that have operational concerns of longer ranges (e.g., kilometers) and longer battery life (e.g., years), rather than the high data rates associated with shorter-range wireless systems, that makes LPLR capabilities more suitable. An example of such environment is the Internet of Things (IoT), which extends networking capabilities to varying physical objects (e.g., vehicles, medical devices, buildings,) implemented using embedded sensors and actuators, for example.
With advancements in wireless communication systems, there are many emerging possibilities for the devices on the network to form various different types of topologies in order to achieve various use cases. Some existing 802.11 network topologies require use of a central entity, called an Access Point (AP). The AP is utilized to provide Internet access to the connected 802.11 nodes. Thus, a network topology utilizing an AP can be unintentionally restricted to the AP's connectivity range. For example, the wireless nodes that an AP can reach may be limited by the physical layer operating conditions (e.g., physical obstacles such as walls, moving objects etc). Due to various limitations, a range for an AP may not allow wireless connections to reach all available wireless nodes, even wireless nodes that are located within range of a wireless networking area. An airport display system could be one such use case, where the range of a single AP may not be reachable for all of the display nodes in the airport. Therefore, it may be desirable to implement techniques that utilize a network topology which further leverages longer range functionality of wireless technologies, while maintaining an acceptable latency.
Moreover, some existing 802.11 technologies are conventionally used for single-hop communication. This can cause difficulties for a network administrator to control and configure the wireless device which are physically located beyond the range which AP could cater.